I’ve ended the week dispirited by the awful climate news and the loneliness of my personal attempts at activism. So I decided it’s good day to update our household climate action plan. This plan lists stuff we’re trying to do and includes household, work, communication, activism and community activities (obviously these can overlap!) I know… Read Post »

I was doing some filing this evening and found a negative manuscript assessment for my first book Loving Richard Feynman. It’s probably ten years since I read the report. It’s even more critical than I remembered, and still hard to read. Most of the feedback focusses on the main character, Catherine. The assessor described her… Read Post »

I’m finishing my last assignment for the semester and trying to cut out words. I thought I’d share some of my top tips for getting a document under the word limit. In order to can always be shortened to ‘to’.You can almost always just delete the word ‘just’.Words like ‘very’, ‘completely’ and ‘indubitably’ can very… Read Post »

I sometimes listen to Rural Romance (RuRo) novels on audiobook and enjoy them tremendously. You might assume that I relate to these books because I grew up in the country, however, I experienced no romance at all while living rurally. Because of this, I have created a new genre called Realistic Rural Romance (ReRuRo). It… Read Post »

Listicles are good for readers because they increase the white space on the page. Listicles are good for writers because you don’t have to think. Despite their ease of production, digestion and excretion, there are some common mistakes people make when writing a listicle. Read on to learn these two things: What the ten listicle… Read Post »

There are a number of middle-grade books about netball including the Netball Gems series and Sporty Kids: Netball! And yet, it seems that in other genres, netball has been missing from our literary works. To begin to rectify this, I’ve drawn up a list of netball fiction ideas. I’m happy for anyone to grab one of… Read Post »

The first time I had an inkling that my friend Ben was writing articles about our friendship was when I read his Daily Hail piece titled, ‘Is it ever okay to tell your friend they’re a terrible person?’ In the article Ben wrote about a friend called ‘Jenny’ who had borrowed his red jumper and… Read Post »

I’m not one of the world’s great spellers. I blame English. Below I’ve expressed my frustration (with some swears apologies). If illustrated this could be a lovely baby board book or frieze for a child’s room. Aa A is for Art. Apparently. Not R, because that would be easy. Rseholes. Bb There are two Bs… Read Post »

When I was in Prep I was the first kid in my class to be proclaimed Writer of the Week for my story about the bush fires. I was given a badge and a strong boost to my ego. I didn’t see it as a temporary honour but as a permanent part of who I… Read Post »

When I was in Grade 6 we did a project where we researched a profession we were interested in. I wanted to be many things when I grew up, including a police rescue worker and a lawyer, but I decided to research being an author. I wrote to one of my favorite authors, Robin Klein,… Read Post »